Anyone ever heard of a quintal?

I have shamelessly cut and paste the following

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Quintal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The quintal is an historical unit of mass with many different definitions in different countries. It is derived from the Latin centenarius, meaning 100 pounds.

The unit was and still is used in the Arab world, where it is known as the qintar. It is currently defined informally as 50 kg. The qintar was imported to Europe by traders.

In France it was defined as 100 livres, about 48.95 kg, although it has now been redefined as 100 kg. In Spain it is still defined as 100 libras, or about 46 kg, and in Portugal as 128 libras or about 58.75 kg. The English quintal, now obsolete, was defined sometimes as 100 lb (exactly 45.359 237 kg) and sometimes as 112 lb (about 50.80 kg).

The metric quintal is defined in the U.S. as 100 kilograms. This unit is not recognised by the SI, but is used in agriculture for measuring grain.
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Thanks Martin.

That encyclopaedia entry seems to suggest that the libra is still used in Spain and Portugal. Anyone know anyhing about this?

Anyway, Bud, what context did the quintal come up in?

Since Spain is a member of the EU, iti is illegal for them to use the quintal or the libra for legal purposes or for purposes of trade.

However, I extract the following from
http://www.fonline.de/rs-ebs/geschichte/groessen/mas15.htm#ank1

(A reprint [in German] of European weights and measures, the original being dated 1842)


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1 Castilianisches Pfund = 2 Mark = 0,8217 bayer. Pfund = 460,15 Gramm
1 gewöhnlicher Quintal = 100 Pfund
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English translation

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1 Castillian pound = 2 Mark = 0.8217 Bavarian pounds = 460.15 grams.
1 Ordinary quintal = 100 pounds.
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The same reference gave the following for Portugal:
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1 Pfund = 0,8196 bayer. Pfund = 458,98 Gramm
1 Quintal = 4 Arrobas = 128 Pfund
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The word "libra" is certainly a latin word for "pound", so I would assume that in both Spain and Portugal, they would use the word "libra" (or something similar) rather than "pfund".

It should also be noted that the Portugeuse pound was 1.17 grams (about 0.2%) less than the spanish [Castillian] pound. Could have created problems for trans-border trade!.


Bryan, may I recomend that you visit this site - yo uwill find it interesting. (If you are unable to read German, keep an English-German dictionary handy). I read a little German, and most of it is self-explanatory.

Will visit that site. Anyway, I have the feeling that if it weren't for metrication, these two Iberian pounds would have merged and replaced all local variants by now.


p.s. "Pound" has a Latin root, also, namely pondus/pondo etc. It is just that this root was preferred by German nations, whereas latin nations seem to have preferred the other latin word for weight- Libra. Not sure why.

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Anyway, Bud, what context did the quintal come up in?
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Guide to Indian Railway. Luggage weight limit 1 quintal.

I see.... but **which** quintal?

Re: Untitled March 4 2004, 5:11 AM

I see.... but **which** quintal?


That's the beauty of all old measures, you know their value immediately.

Quintal = 50 KILOGRAMMES
Quintal = 100 KILOGRAMMES


As for the other nonmetrical quintals, I am not suprised they varied, given the unit is effectively 2000 years old.